Commissioners’ Court of Somervell County met in a special meeting at 9:30 a.m. on the above date with all Commissioners present. County Judge Walter Maynard presided.

CITIZENS COMMENTS: None.

DISCUSSION ON AGENDA ITEMS

9. Judge Maynard said he had met with the assistant regional director of TXDOT regarding the County’s taking over maintenance of two roadside parks. He said he received verbal confirmation that TXDOT will deed the parks to the County in return. No motion.

13. The Court did a preliminary review of the 2010-2011 budget for Glen Rose Medical Center and Nursing Home. No motion.

14. Judge Maynard distributed to the Court what he described as a first attempt at a working budget for Somervell County for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. No motion.

16. and 17. The Court recessed into Executive Session at 10:53 a.m. and reconvened into open session at 11:23 a.m. See motion 17.

MOTIONS ON AGENDA ITEMS

ITEM NO.

Motion was made by Commissioner Wirt and seconded by Commissioner Ford to correct typographical errors in item 4 and move

10. Motion was made by Commissioner Ford and seconded by Commissioner Cummings to approve Change Order #11, Hospital Expansion Contract, a credit of $82,908.54, and authorize the Judge to sign. Motion carried. All voting aye.

11. Motion was made by Commissioner Ford and seconded by Commissioner Cummings to approve the attached resolution, and allow the Judge to include a letter to the National Park Service in support of the application for planning assistance. Motion carried. All voting aye.

12. Motion was made by Commissioner Wirt and seconded by Commissioner Ford to approve rate adjustments for the Expo Center and Amphitheatre as submitted, with corrections of typographical errors, and maintaining the 50% discount for County residents on non-commercial events. Motion carried. All voting aye.

15. Motion was made by Commissioner Cummings and seconded by Commissioner Barnard to approve the reappointment of Bob Lancaster and Gary Whittle to the Somervell County Hospital Authority Board for three-year terms effective October 1, 2010. Motion carried. All voting aye.

17. Motion was made by Commissioner Ford and seconded by Commissioner Wirt to approve the County/District Clerk’s request to promote Virginia Perales to Deputy II, grade 11C effective August 4, 2010. Motion carried. All voting aye.

There being no further business, motion was made by Commissioner Wirt and seconded by Commissioner Ford to adjourn at 11:25 a.m. Motion carried. All voting aye.

_____________________________ ___________________________

ZACH CUMMINGS MIKE FORD

COMMISSIONER, PRECINCT #1 COMMISSIONER, PRECINCT #2

_____________________________ ___________________________

LLOYD WIRT JAMES BARNARD

COMMISSIONER, PRECINCT #3 COMMISSIONER, PRECINCT #4

_____________________________ ___________________________

CANDACE GARRETT WALTER MAYNARD

COUNTY CLERK COUNTY JUDGE

**********************

and here's my rough transcript. As always, do listen to the audio to be sure of what was said.

Itme 9. Discuss, report to you on roadside parks, Maynard met with TxDot, regional director cancelled out, made aware of a letter, memorandum of understanding, let's deed 'em over and get it over with. TxDOT says they would have to shut it down, maynard what about the letter, txdot what letter? After reading letter, Txdot doesn't think it has an issue. TxDot was talking about shutting down the 2 roadside parks on 67 and 144 because of the cost of maintaining them. 60,000 a year. Originally I offered to help maintain, court approved us sending a letter, don't close 'em, deed them to the county. Real popular idea because they thought they could be used better to promote tourism if we own them. Barnard. We didn't want them unless they were deeded to us.

10. Change order for GRMC. Returning that much unused to the county. Might have a couple more tiny deals. 82,908.54 credit.

11. Presentation by Margaret Drake on trails. I can't believe you're starting a twenty year project and you're wanting to move to Colorado. Drake-it'll take 20 years to sell our place. :0. Maynard went and got a copy of comprehensive plan, city didn't share it. Connecting specific areas. Ford- not really a planned trail system as of yet, National Trails System can actually get on the ground and help establish the best routes to connect all these sites, city has plans to increase number of sidewalks and a lot of this may be part of this trails system. Envisioned trail, not planned. Resolution, popular eco-tourism destination, historical sites limited and inadequate, Somervell County values rural heritage and intent on maintaining the integrity of its environment, Somco supports trails, will assist with overall coordination (possibly) Letter to NPA (National Park Service)

12. Rate adjustements to Expo center and ampitheatre. Dooley- brief overview of this last week, go over things we want to change or take general questions. Not penalizing our large shows by having an overall rate, surveyed regional shows, 93, 98, 2005, find ourselves in the middle of what the avereage is AFTER increases are there. Gear this towards our large shows. Eliminate winter and summer rates. Now we have hotels, restaurants, instead of charing a 1000 a day base want to take it to 1500 day which is the summer rate. Raise the show barn rental to 1000 if used standalone. Don't have any shows that rent it by itself, but those who rent it as a secondary area, that's included in the rental. 4tth replace rebate formula with a new one, cap it at 1000 per day. Never take our summer rates below 500, will do the same thing in winter. Raise weekly rental on horse stalls from 40 to 45. Raise cost off cattle panels. Much of higher cost shows are cattle panels- 5 dollars. Horse shows produce more money. Gross probably about 10 thousand dollars, per show 1-2000 dollars. Don't think it will run anybody off, especially those that like the air conditioned buidling. Maynard-competitive with others? Dooley-we looked at others, Bell county charges 2500 per show for dirt, flat fee. We move out the dirt every two years, otherwise a solid dirt building. Eliminate 50 percent discount, daily rent at 400. Local -rent at 125 plus tables chairs, think we need to raise that overall rate to 300. Most people when they have an event it's a pretty big deal, and they're paying a couple thousand for a band, don't think raising the rate till run anybody off. Could be controversial because people like to get discounts., Maynard-you and I had this discussion. I feel that all of our county discourts are huge, but I don't know this is significant enough to make a change. Citizens' center abuse when someone gets their local sister to rent it out. All the other paying the price, but I don't think our local people... Barnard- livestock show. Dooley-all pretty much we take care of them, with prom we charge them the half rate for all day. Recommend that I would go up to 300 per day but then charge half for residents? Maynard-I don't support doing away with the 50 percent discount whatever the rate is. Paper on file, need to make changes. When does this go into effect? Dooley-all new contracts. Leave discounts for local citizens in on non-commercial events. Wirt-real problem going from 2 to 5. Dooley-I don't know of too many people that are as low as we are. Barnard-winter rate going to be sticker shock? Dooley-yes, local rodeo will pay more. If it runs people off, we'll change it back. Ford-when we will know not just one group backing out but a trend? Dooley-I will send out a letter to everyone and explain their particular impact and telephone the new clients. Maynard-how hard would it be to make the phone calls first? Dooley-oh, they'll contact me if they get the letters first. Barnard.-economy is a little different than it was in 98. Dooley. It's really tough, everyone's working on benchmarking. Utilities is the big trick right now, we're at 25, others are at 30 percent. CVB working with us, Billy Huckaby does a really good job. Now that we have these horse shoes it's a whole new day for us. Barnard-did I miss your answer on when you will know? Dooley-I'll have it within a week, doesn't take long to call, they'll tell you right off.

13. Preliminary review of the GRMC and GRNH budget at approximately 47:24. First was # 15 approval of Bob Lancaster and Gary Whittle. Budget equipment divided into two sections. Anticipating 845 in general hospital emergency, 247000 in nursing home. anticipating a loss of 895,699 loss in joint operation this year. 523157 hospital. 501a program 571,679 loss there. Amount we contractually pay the 501a entity., doesn't get to show what the 501a contributes to the operation. Quite a bit more than 500,000. general revenue. Only put this on here for discussion before they meet tomorrow and decide. Larry Shaw-I want to mention as w'e're talking about the projected loss, while that figure is significantly lower than what we proposed last year, this represents depreciation, it's a paper loss, not a cash loss. We're making progress is wht I"m trying to say, I think our revenue projections are on the conservative side. Hope your revenues come in higher than what you project. 666,000 is paper loss, consolidated (Ford). Maynard-have you considered what your cash flow loss will be, 3-400,000 range once you factor those 2 out. There again, it's a little bit of a crap shoot. WE're not hoping people get sick, we're hoping if they do they come to GRMC and pay their bills.

For the record, this is not a proposed budget, this is a first run of a working budget. First 2 pages revenue, 2 lines of revenue. Under requested, approved is the revenue we anticipate if we do no increase in taxes. The one under requested is the revenue we get if we go to the rollback tax rate. 8 percent revenue increase. Totals page is the back page. ...step in grades for salaries, longevity pay, that's where we're at w/o making cuts in services and personnel. Not addressing anything for capital and equipment. Probably going to run 700,000 into new indigency health system. .. more on audio.

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salon
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Lance
Been awhile. Send me an email at salon@glenrose.net with the names of who you're talking about, above. Also, the newspaper editor is no longer local, ie officed here, but the paper is run....
(What Happened to Jerry Jacene? )

LanceHall
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I'd love to see the Hotel Guest books and see if Jacene's name shows up long before he officially *found* the tracks. I'd like to know if the Visitor's Bureau has emails wit....
(What Happened to Jerry Jacene? )

LanceHall
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I see the land or that part of it is now in the hands of Glen Rose's own Corky Underwood.
Is Jacene still involved? I had already informed the Visitor Bureau manager (who's....
(What Happened to Jerry Jacene? )